One possible contribution to maladaptive or aberrant behaviors of children is a cognitive component; namely, distorted perceptions of their social, personal, and physical environments and distorted causal atttibutions regarding their responsibility for these events. The aims of this project are to develop measures of the cognitive capabilities (social perspective taking, and causal attributions of physical, social and affective events) and to examine relations between these cognitive variables and interpersonal behavior. Two samples of children were studied. Forty-eight were seen at 2 years and 5 years. A second sample (N = 35, 4 to 11-year-olds) was seen only once. Mothers in both samples had been given a psychiatric screening interview (SADS); the mothers in the study had diagnoses of either "normal" or "depressed". The children were observed in standard play sessions with a familiar peer; mothers were present in the sessions. Interactions were evaluated for frequency of initiations, social responsiveness, and complexity of each type of interaction. Perspective-taking was assessed at 2 years. Causal attribution measures were given at the later ages. The mother-child relationships at two years were positively related to child-mother an child-peer relationships at five years. Perspective-taking ability at 2 years was positively related to measures of empathy and internal locus of control at 5 years. Mother's diagnosis as unrelated to cognitive measures in the children. Children with problematic behavior differed from the children without problems on their causal attributions; they were more likely to perceive themselves at fault for negative events in their lives.